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LOS ANGELES - LMU men's basketball will hit the road for the first time in the young 2016-17 season, heading to Nevada on Monday, Nov. 14. Game time is set for 7 pm and the game can be seen on the Mountain West Network and listened to on KXLU 88.9 FM. This will be the 44th meeting between the two teams, the first since the 1995 season.
THE MATCH-UP
LMU opened the 2016-17 season with a 99-51 win over Vanguard at Gersten Pavilion on Friday. The 48-point win was tied for the sixth largest in program history, equalling the Lions 78-31 win over San Diego on Dec. 10, 1958.
Buay Tuach led the Lions with a career-best 20 points and
Jeffery McClendon also netted a career-best with 15. The Lions out-rebounded Vanguard 59-36.
Nevada opened the season with an 81-63 setback to Saint Mary's in Moraga on Friday. The Wolfpack were picked to finish second in the Mountain West Conference. Marcus Marshall scored 25 points in Nevada's opener, hitting 4-for-12 from the three-point line. The Wolfpack attempted 17 as a team. They finished the game shooting 46.8 percent while Saint Mary's hit 60 percent.
This will be the 44th meeting between the two former conference foes and the first since playing in the Nike Festival in Honolulu, HI on Dec. 20, 1995. The Lions won 75-67. LMU leads the series 28-15 and have gone 14-12 in Nevada. The series began in 1946 with Nevada winning a pair of contests. The last meeting in Reno was on Nov. 28, 1991. The Wolfpack won 120-116. The bulk of the series came in the then WCAC from 1970 to 1979. They have met just six times since Nevada left the conference, meeting in 1981, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992 and 1995.
INSIDE THE LIONS
As mentioned, the Lions opened the 2016-17 season with a 99-51 win over Vanguard at Gersten Pavilion. The Lions host 17 regular season home games on the season, the second most in program history. The trip to Nevada will be just one of three road games for the Lions in non-conference.
The Lions opened a new season with a win for the sixth straight season. The Lions are 41-21 in season openers since they joined the West Coast Conference in 1955-56. The Lions are 14-37 in the first road game of the season since 1959-60. They fell to UC Irvine, 77-53, last season.
In the win over Vanguard, the Lions featured a head-turning number offense in the first half and then did the same but with defense in the second. The Lions scored 57 points in the opening 20 minutes. It was the most points in the opening half since the 1991 season. A year ago, the Lions scored 50 points in the first half against BYU, the first time since they scored 54 first half points at CSUN on Feb. 18, 1992... In the second half, LMU held Vanguard to just 17 points, limiting them to just 5-for-35 from the field and 1-for-18 from the three-point line. It was the lowest half by an opponent since the Lions held Seattle to just 11 first half points in an 83-51 win on Nov. 23, 1996.
LMU finished the win on Friday with 27 assists on 36 made field goals. Munis Tutu led the Lions with six, while Kelvin Amayo and Brandon Brown had five. Brown ranked 10th all-time in LMU history with 177 assists last season while Tutu set the record for assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.69. The 27 assists was the most since putting up 30 against La Sierra on Dec. 21, 2013.
The Lions out-rebounded Vanguard 59-36. Petr Herman led the Lions with 10 rebound while adding eight points. The 59 rebounds was the most since they had 61 against Pacifica on Nov. 9, 2012. Freshman center Mattias Markusson had eight points and eight rebounds in his debut on Friday. His eight rebounds was one shy of Wyking Jones record of nine rebounds for most in a freshman's first game. Jones did it against Morgan State on Nov. 22, 1991.
The Lions return seven letterwinners from last year's 2015-16 squad that finished six games better than the year before at 14-16 overall and 6-12 in the WCC (tied for 7th). The Lions won three of their last four, including a pair of overtime wins against teams in the top half of the league standings (USF and Pepperdine).
COMING UP
LMU will wrap-up the first week of the season with a highly-anticipated match-up with UConn on Nov. 17. The game will wrap-up LMU's Tip-off Week and it will be a part of LMU's ALL FOR ONE DAY OF GIVING!
LMU is looking for 4,000 alumni, parents and friends to make a gift of ANY size to ANYWHERE on campus on Nov. 17. If LMU meets the goal, two generous donors will award LMU with $100,000 for student scholarships. Give on the 17th and make sure to mark your gift for the LIONS ATHLETIC FUND, which benefits the scholarships of the Lions' more than 400 student-athletes. It's all hands on deck, so please challenge your friends to make their gift using the hashtag #AllforOneLMU. For more, visit LMULions.com/TIPOFF16
The highly-anticipated match-up with UCONN on Nov. 17 begins at 6 pm with a special Pregame Celebration for LMU Cage Members in the atrium outside Gersten Pavilion. Not a member? It's easy. Sign-up by visiting LMULions.com/Tickets and clicking on THE CAGE or sign-up while at the pregame celebration. In addition, the CAGE will be giving away it's official jersey.
Single game and season tickets are on sale, as well as, group ticket packages featuring special discounts to be a part of this year's memorable 18-game home schedule. This includes the Lions' match-up with UCONN, which will bookend the 2016 Tip-Off Week. Go to LMULions.com/tickets to purchase.
A final reminder that all students, faculty and staff get into ALL LMU games for free with valid LMU OneCard. For more on TIP-OFF WEEK 2016, visit LMULions.com/TIPOFF16.
TICKETS
The best way to get tickets to this season of LMU basketball is still through season tickets. To renew season tickets, click MY ACCOUNT. To buy new season ticket, click BUY TICKETS. Have the promo code for the local community season ticket, click PROMO CODE.
Support LMU's 22 intercollegiate teams and it's student-athletes through scholarships and team support by joining the Lions Athletics Fund. Your help will make LMU #LIONSTRONG.Together... WE ARE LMU Lions... join the pride today:
